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Saturday, October 3, 2015

What’s Wrong at Marvel and DC Part 3-A Lack of Balance in Storytelling

Stories are made up of two elements:
Structure and form. And the basis of a solid story is a structure that is made
up of a fouindation that’s level that allows it to flow smoothly from beginning
to middle to end.

Unfortunately at DC and Marvel most of
their writers and editors don’t undestand how these two elements work in
creating the platform for balanced storytelling these days. Oftentimes in today’s
comics stories structure and form just don’t synergize. Because everything is so
uneven when it comes to premises, plotting and pacing. And because these
elements of structure are shoddy, the stories formed around them drag on and
on.

At Marvel and DC It usually takes
five issues to tell a story that used to take one issue to tell. That kind of imbalance in story pacing
keeps readers from being compelled to keep buying comics or following a
character’s adventures. The rule in writing is to move the story as quickly as
possible. The faster the reader gets to the ending the faster the more they
anticipate the next month’s comics.

When a story is balanced the reader
is compelled to keep reading. And they buy multiple issues because they like
what they’re reading, not because they feel forced to due to a multi-issue
event in a crossover that goes over a hundred issues.

In addition to the pacing issues are
the story models. Most writers today at Marvel and DC are forgetting what the
first word in the world Comic Book are: Comic. In this quest to make comics
more “real” Most writers write stories with an overly serious tone where every
hero is a hero almost all the time. These days readers rarely get a joke in a
superhero story. Or even a moment where we see the heroes having some downtime
where they enjoy their hobbies and interests. Heck, we don’t even see heroes
going to the movies or having a barbecue.

Either readers get super serious
overly “dark” comics like Batman or Wonder Woman or they get overly humorous
comics like Deadpool.

Due to this imbalance in the story
models comics often feature underdeveloped and one-dimensional characters. And
part of developing multidimensional characters is showing that they have
balanced lives so that the readers get to see all the aspects of the character.

As I see it being a superhero is only
about 1/3 of what makes a superhero character three dimesional. The other two
parts are comprised of their alter ego and their personality. And a writer has
to give all three parts need development in order for a story to have balance. When
one part is underdevelopled readers are left with one and two dimensional
characters they have a hard time relating to or connecting with.

Balanced storytelling usually
features a tight plot, fast pacing and well-developed characters.

Moreover, Balanced stories usually
follow the rule of less is more. Why? Because A little story goes a long way.
The less a writer tells a story and the more they show the more impact it has
on the reader.

Unfortunately, Most Marvel and DC Comics follow the rule of
More, more, and more. More story, More plot, more chacters and more detail in costumes
and comic panels. Sometimes there’s so much detail on a comic page it’s just
overwhelming. Compound this with the long crossover events and it’s literally
sensory overload when you pick up a Marvel or a DC Comic.

I was reading the synopsis for the
Marvel Event Axis. And I got a headache trying to figure everything out. In
between all the flipped characters the overcomplicated plot and the sheer
volume of characters I just felt overwhelmed. There was absolutely no balance
to the structure of the plot and so the form of the story was uneven and all
over the place.

Contrast Axis to DC’s Legends in
1986. Legends had a very simple plot: Darkseid wants to turn the world against
DC’s Heroes. While The story was part of an overreaching arc in all of DC’s
Post-Crisis comics readers could easily follow the story in the Legends
mini-series without buying extra comics to complete it.

Because the story was balanced
readers were able to buy and try comics they usually wouldn’t.

Legends was one of the best events in DC’s Post-Crisis
history. Why? Because It was balanced. It had a strong hook, was easy to read
and defined what made DC heroes the icons they were while capturing the heart
and soul of the DC Universe. Sure the story was Post Crisis, but new readers
and old could pick up Legends and not feel lost at all. Every issue was an
entry point.

And Contrast Axis this to the event Acts
of Vengance in 1989. Acts of Vengance had a simple plot: Villians fight someone
other than their arch enemies. And while the event was Avengers themed, and was
part of a company wide arc, it was incredibly easy to follow and just fun. Sure
we knew the mastermind was Loki back in 1989, but who cared? Just seeing the
matchups of our favorite heroes taking on villains they usually didn’t fight
was the event.

Out of all the events Marvel ever
produced, Acts of Vengance was one of the best story wise. Why? Because it was
balanced. It had a strong hook, was easy to read and was just good old fun that
captured the spirit of what a Marvel comic is about. A reader could follow it
easily by just picking up a single issue of any comic. No special issues, no
special covers. Every issue was an entry point.

Moreover, a reader didn’t feel
obligated to buy a hundred issues just to complete the entire story. They could
pick and choose what titles they wanted to read. And because each individual battle between hero and villian
was single and self-contained in individual character books it gave readers a
compulsion to pick up titles they usually wouldn’t.

Thanks to the balanced story model featured
in Acts of Vengance Marvel was able to successfully launch new titles like New
Warriors, revamp stale characters like Psylocke and make them into icons and
bring forgotten characters like Richard Rider’s Nova back as a regular hero in the
Marvel Universe.

When a story has balance readers can
easily follow a story from beginning to middle to end. Everything usually fits
a three-act paradigm and compels the reader to keep reading to the end. Thanks
to all the gimmicks at Marvel and DC most readers haven’t read a story with a
functional three-act paradigm in years and because they haven’t seen a good
story model they don’t know what a balanced story looks like. If comics
followed more balanced models for storytelling readers would be excited to buy
Marvel and DC Comics on the regular instead of feeling obligated to buy them
just to complete a crossover.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Shawn James and I'm a man with a lot on my mind. This blog is a place where I'll write essays, promote my self-published, books and display my art.
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